Editorial
In the tech sector, there is a widely held ideal of a “bias toward action.” The idea is that creating a minimum viable product and testing it quickly is a faster way to learn what works than trying to create the perfect solution in isolation — and it does have many benefits, including engaging users in the process. It works well in many contexts.
The challenge of jumping right into action, however, is that too often, action without reflection is just activity, not necessarily progress. I have seen this happen over and over again with productivity, collaboration and communications platforms, many of which I have watched come and go leaving behind dashed hopes.
The problem?
We started to build, deploy and use social technologies before reflecting on how they differ from other enterprise applications. We built social technologies with the same mindsets that we used to build ERP systems. We never slowed down to consider the dynamics of mechanical systems designed for production or accounting and how that differs from the dynamics of human systems.
Digital workplace maturity requires that we support the performance of BOTH mechanical and human systems by optimizing each for its unique value.
Take a moment to stop and think about people. Have you ever been able to accurately predict what they will do next? What does it mean for people to perform at their best?
When I think of human excellence, I think of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. Amor Towles’ book, A Gentleman in Moscow. Yo-Yo Ma playing my college’s Alma Mater during COVID. When people perform at their best it is transcendent. It is emotional, unique and relational. It is not logical, linear, transactional, predictable or controllable.
How do you maximize that potential? Defining it ahead of time is a contradiction. Great human performance can be encouraged, inspired and rewarded but it cannot be mandated or measured in the same way as mechanical systems.
The conundrum for organizations is that the human aspect of digital workplace maturity doesn't necessarily have high financial costs, but does require investment in time to reflect, learn and engage with others. Until this work is done, any progress made in digital workplace systems will be hampered by the lack of change in how employees work.
Here are five things you can do to meaningfully impact the success of human systems in your organization.
Step One: Acknowledge Organizations’ Human System
Too often we don’t even see that we are treating employees with the same approach we would use to produce a product. Acknowledge that an organization includes both mechanical systems that govern physical assets, production, supply chains and finances; and a human system that today is mostly governed the same way, and constrains progress as a result. Acknowledge that the lack of human system governance is causing enormous problems, both individually and in maximizing strategic potential.
People judged on their ability to be predictable and controllable will always struggle. They will never be as predictable as mechanical systems, and that failure creates constant emotional friction. Because of this dynamic and the unacknowledged differences between mechanical and human systems, individuals are set up to fail but told that it is an individual failure instead of the truth: that the system makes their success impossible.
Related Article: Focus on How Work Happens to Banish Toxic Cultures
Step Two: Reflect and Discuss
As technology accelerates, it will operate almost all of the mechanical systems in organizations. People will never be more logical, predictable or controllable. At the same time, mechanical systems cannot activate and validate customers, create meaning or inspire change. Realizing value requires people because they co-create meaning, which is just another word for value. Reflect on the following, in the context of your organization
- What does it mean to maximize the performance of people?
- How does that happen?
- What strategies, operational systems, and management practices need to be in place for this to happen?
- How is the potential of employees being constrained by governance designed for mechanical systems?
Define what work is uniquely human, then identify what operational systems support that work without throttling it.
Step Three: Learn From Experience
People have been collaborating with each other for millennia, forming communities to share the costs and rewards of life as it fluctuates. I spent over a decade researching communities to find out how the most successful communities operated and produced shared value. That work is incorporated into Engaged Organizations’ Workplace Maturity Model.
Many professionals have decades of experience creating community-centric governance models that engage and reward people in ways that inspire their best work. Reach out and connect with them.
Step Four: Invest in the Converted
The business culture is obsessed with scale, and in mechanical systems, it is possible. However, in human systems, individuals change at different rates and inconsistently. In aggregate, people are somewhat predictable, but any one person’s behavior is hard to predict, and people do not change based on logical arguments. It is more effective to grow by energizing those who already see the value and, in doing so, inspire others to join.
Focusing on accelerating a core also narrows the work so that it feels less fragmented and sporadic, and results in better results with less stress.
Step Five: Get an Outside Perspective
One of the observations I have made after years of working with global clients across many sectors is that, because of a default orientation on mechanical systems and scale, clients have a hard time identifying what success looks like.
Human systems and cultures are complex adaptive systems, and as individuals within them change, the system reaches tipping points. This dynamic results in compounding value growth. As change is normalized, the rate of change hits inflection points and suddenly accelerates quickly. This also means early success looks almost flat - and for stakeholders used to mechanical systems change, it seems inconsequential.
Early in the process, it is so easy to miss signs of progress and even if you see it, it can be hard to communicate why it is meaningful to others. This is the single biggest value of having someone with an outside perspective and experience to support your work. Without it, success is often not seen, explained or understood and puts entire programs at risk.
Conference
Oct
20
Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo Orlando 2025
Register
Conference
Oct
27
Gartner HR Symposium/Xpo Orlando 2025
Register
Wash, Rinse, Repeat
We have all the technology we need to create thriving digital workplaces. Technology is the easy part; after all, it is a mechanical system that is predictable and controllable.
What gets missed is the investment in changing the way the organization works, which is too often also seen as a mechanistic challenge: design a new workflow and tell people to change. I can tell you now, that will not work.
People are not machines, and we don’t like to be told what to do. Even if you do succeed, you will constrain the potential of employees rather than maximize it – because they can do things that you cannot yet articulate or predict.
What works is creating governance and operational models which feel like a supportive trellis vs. a confining cage.
Learn how you can join our contributor community.
